Most individuals have more than one credit card in their possession as well as similarly constructed plastic cards as, for example, prepaid credit cards, prepaid casino gaming cards, a driver's license, store discount or premium cards, library cards, medical insurance cards, etc. These typically have a rigid or semi-rigid plastic finish and measure approximately 2⅛ inches by 3⅜ inches.
People will carry them in slotted compartments in their wallet or purse or within one or more protected sections, again within the wallet or purse.
A separate card holder can be employed in the wallet or purse to be used to hold these plastic cards and/or business cards.
One of the difficulties with either of these is that it requires two hands to search through the wallet or card holder so as to eventually retrieve the one card desired.
It would be convenient to have a plastic card holder which can conveniently store a number of these cards and likewise provide the convenience of being easily manipulated, using one hand, if necessary, so as to remove the desired card from the contained grouping.
Further, it would also be advantageous if the holder lent itself to being cheaply made. It would be a further benefit, if the card holder included structure which functionally aided the retention of a plurality of cards while facilitating their removal, one at a time, while providing ancillary benefits such as affording an area onto which promotional or advertising indicia can be placed.
U.S. Design Pat. D 256,852 depicts one form of a credit card holder which appears to have one or more of the advantages sought to be achieved by the present design.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,415,276 describes a somewhat complex structure which permits removal of a single business card from a plurality of such cards stacked within the structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,427,836 B1 describes an identification card sleeve which includes a tray with an edge bracket surrounding three sides of the periphery of the tray to define a slot. This device claims an extension from the side of the holder, generally semi-circular in shape, and flat to lie in substantially the same plane as the sleeve. The extension is claimed to provide a convenient place for grasping and removing the holder from a wallet. The extension is further claimed to include a plurality of raised ribs which facilitate the gripping of the extension by the fingers for easy removal from the wallet.
Design Pat. D 317,983 depicts a credit card clip for holding presumably a plurality of credit cards.